Produce update

Added 1.5 lbs lettuce, 1/3 lb spinach, 1.5 lbs snap peas, 1/3 lb turnips, 3 strawberries, and 1 head of garlic.

That was the last of the harvestable spinach for the season, the strawberry plants seem to be slowing down, some of the varieties of lettuce are all bolted, while some still remain ready to eat. The snap peas are going strong, but this week has some irregular 90+ degree days forecasted. I'm curious to know what effect that will have on all of the crops.

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Total produce count for the year:

51 strawberries

1.8 lbs carrot roots

3 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

6.25 lb sweet/snap peas

15.2 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

45.0 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

3.1 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions

Today's bounty

Today's harvest includes:
  1/3 lb carrot roots, 1 garlic scape, 1/3 lb turnip roots, 1/2 lb snap peas, 8 strawberries, and 3/4 lb lettuce.  About half of the lettuce varieties have gone to flower. Tomorrow is forecasted to be 89 degrees. This will probably be the last week of any harvestable lettuce. Deb & I may pick the last of it tomorrow morning (minus the plants we choose for seeding.)  All this lettuce flowering , and still no broccoli florets!!

An unrelated side note: Yesterday I prepared a bottle of water for work with a few branches of lemon balm. It gave the water a refreshing delicate lemon flavor.

A new variety of rose has bloomed. This first year bush has a two tone pink & white flower. What a nice surprise! I had actually forgotten what color it was supposed to be until this first bloom arrived.

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Total produce count for the year:

48 strawberries

1.8 lbs carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

4.75 lb sweet/snap peas

15.2 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

43.5 lb assorted lettuce

4.75 lb spinach

2.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions

Spinach, strawberries, greens, peas

Today Deb & I picked a nice bounty from both gardens. We racked up another 4 strawberries, 1.25 lbs of the last of the unflowering spinach, 3/4 lb of snap peas and 1/2 lb of greens.

We hope to be be eating our very first homegrown blueberries, blackberries and raspberries within the next week or two.

I'm experimenting with propagation of woody cuttings of four plants: roses, blueberries, blackberries, and grape vine.  I picked a barely woody branch of each species, and cut them off at a 45 degree angle with a very sharp knife. I purchased a rooting hormone powder. After dipping each in the hormone, I inserted them into a hole in the dirt. The blackberry and the grape vine died within a few days.  The blueberry and rose cuttings have remained alive and healthy looking, going on a week now. I removed the limp blackberry and grape vine, and cut a more hardy branch from each. This time, in addition to the rooting hormone, I put a dab of (RAW) honey on each stem. Honey is said to have many of the sugars and minerals plants need to survive and encourage root growth, and it has anti-fungal properties as well.

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Total produce count for the year:

40 strawberries

1.5 lbs carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

2 garlic scapes

3.15 lb sweet/snap peas

15.2 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

42.75 lb assorted lettuce

4.75 lb spinach

2 1/2 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions

The curse of the ever bearing lettuce crop

Deb and I have harvested so much lettuce that we are becoming tired of looking at it. Today I picked another 5 lbs of lettuce(to give away to friends), added to 2 lbs more, a few days ago that we picked for ourselves for the week. Earlier in the week we harvested over a pound of greens, and I picked for friends 2 lbs today. We have almost a pound of spinach from the big garden chilling in the fridge. The spinach is nearly done for the Spring crop. We have plenty of spinach going to flower to collect seeds for our fall planting. I picked nearly a pound of snap peas today. I noticed a few pods going to maturity quickly. The production will be slowing/shutting down within a couple weeks, I think.

Today I picked 10 strawberries! This is the most we've been able to collect in one day. Almost all of our strawberry plants are producing ripe berries on a regular basis. I found a neat recipe for a strawberry fennel orange salad that I'll be making in just a few minutes. The fennel and lettuce came from our big garden, of course.

2 navel oranges
8 ounces strawberries (about 16), hulled and quartered or halved
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced lengthwise, some fronds reserved for garnish
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
8 Boston or Bibb lettuce leaves

We have been observing many beneficial organisms, doing their thing at both gardens.  Today I spotted many wasps looking for preys for their parasitic eggs. There are ladybugs still going to town on some aphids. There are several green lacewing flies joining the ladybugs on the quest for aphids. The spider population has exploded. I have seen a 3 foot green snake at the home/small garden, and a few small blue tailed skinks lizards. The bird bath is keeping the birds happy, so they spend plenty of time in the yard, looking for bugs. There have been plenty of butterflies visiting all of our flowering plants. The local bee population seems to be very plentiful. There certainly is no shortage of pollinators. 

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill

36 strawberries

1.5 lbs carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

2 garlic scapes

2.4 lb sweet/snap peas

14.7 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

42.75 lb assorted lettuce

3 1/2 lb spinach

2 1/2 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

Cat Control!

I bought 900 of these bamboo(rot resistant wood) kabob skewers at the low low price of 100 for $.99 at Shoppers Food Warehouse. I put them about 6" apart, in a two foot border around each raised bed at the little garden. So far we have found no signs of kitty digging. I think this is a permanent and cheap fix. And after two or three times getting poked, Deb and I both learned to watch where we reach. I'm just imagining one of the neighbors cats taking a squat and finding a sharp wooden stick.

Updated photos of big garden

Squash plants are getting big

The beans are using the trellis

Runner beans have gorgeous flowers

The dill is huge!

Peas!

Its very small, only 3" tall. It's just ornamental

Bird bath with rocks for bugs to land on

Sorta raised beds now

The bean trellis again

Runner beans again

The strawberries are spreading

Ornamental fringed kale

One of the first few squash buds

One of the mantis egg cases we placed

Radish flowers

A beautiful strawberry

snap peas!

Beets

The first of the raspberries 

The self water buckets aren't doing so hot

The 50 gallon sweet potato bin

Some more pots

And more

The peas are taking over!

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of burnet

lots of fennel

lots of thyme

lots of dill

26 strawberries

1.5 lbs carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

2 garlic scapes

1.5 lb sweet/snap peas

11.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

35.75 lb assorted lettuce

2 3/4 lb spinach

2 1/2 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

Ladybugs and flowers and carrots, oh my!

Debbie and I purchased 2,000 ladybugs and 3 praying mantis egg cases from www.planetnatural.com. The ladybugs were to be released at night, because ladybugs only fly during the day. The goal is to get them to hang around, rather than fly away.  Today, (two days later) I still saw lots of ladybugs on the plants.  I even witnessed several pairs of ladybugs mating. Mating ladybugs = lots of ladybug larvae = lots of dead aphids. The mantis egg cases hatch in 4 to 6 weeks of warm weather. One of them is already up in our pink rose bush. The other two egg cases are going to the big garden on Sunday. I hope they don't hatch before then!

The strawberry plants that are producing ripe berries have  been consistent. Each plant seems to be making one ripe berry every day. We are up to four plants making ripe berries now. There are two more plants at the big garden that are behind the times, and three more at the home garden.  If they all get on the same schedule, we could be eating 9 berries each day.

The snap pea crop is producing steady at 1/4 lb of pods each day. We check every two days and net about 1/2 lb. The spinaches are definitely flowering.  Thats good, and sad at the same time. I'm not quite ready to give up the delicious tender spinach, but I'll be glad to harvest the seeds for an August planting.

I thinned out some more turnips and carrots today. With more space, larger tubers can be produced. The smaller roots we are getting now aren't a waste though. I find the smaller carrots and turnip roots are even better tasting than the big ones.

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of burnet

lots of fennel

lots of thyme

lots of dill

23 strawberries

1 lb carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

1.5 lb sweet/snap peas

11.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

34.25 lb assorted lettuce

2 2/3 lb spinach

2 1/3 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

Produce update

Today we picked 1/2 lbs of snap peas (plus a few tasters), 4 delicious strawberries, and 1 head of garlic.


Unfortunately, the strawberries and snap peas were nowhere to be found for the camera...

In other news: I think I finally found a way to keep Those wiley neighborhood cats out of the garden beds at the little garden. I will post more information on this within a few days.

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of burnet

lots of fennel

lots of thyme

lots of dill

15 strawberries

1/2 lb carrot roots

2 heads of garlic

1 lb sweet peas

8.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

34.25 lb assorted lettuce

2 2/3 lb spinach

1.5 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

Harvest results

Not much room for Deb!

We sold lots of lettuce today at the market. We started the day with a 21 lb harvest of four varieties of lettuce. I think all but 5 lbs made its way to a new home.  We also picked (and sold) 2 lbs of Miner's Lettuce. We harvested 1.5 lbs of regular spinach and 1 lb of New Zealand spinach. Add 2 more lbs of mixed dark greens to the tally, and lastly we picked and sold some Burnet, Parsley, Thyme, Dill, Fennel, and Oregano. I think that about covers it, unless we are forgetting anything. This morning was such a blur. We woke up at 5:00am to get our harvest in so that everything would be fresh. I haven't seen 5am in quite some time before this morning. I'm just now typing this blog while waking from a two hour nap, so pardon any grammar issues.

A truck full of greens

The farmer's market at Festival Way shopping center in Waldorf was a pleasant treat today. The shoppers who showed up were very nice people often engaging in friendly conversation. Most of the farmers/producers seem to try to grow things in an organic fashion, which is refreshing. The market is organized by Mrs. Eaton of Eaton Farm. She was very nice to us, and helped us with anything we needed. She started out as a producer at the Laplata farmers market. She was tired of non-producers showing up (resellers who buy produce from any farm, far away), so she started her own market elsewhere. Mrs. Eaton later told us, we need a name for our "farm". A little quick thinking, and we came up with Emmett Farm, named after my late grandfather. After all, he is the reason why I enjoy and know how to turn dirt to food. Also, the big garden / greenhouse is his old garden bed, so it seemed appropriate.

Selling our surplus at the market

After we left the market, the lettuce beds were vacant. We did leave a few random lettuce plants to grow flowers and seed for the fall crop. Deb & I went right to work, planting more tomatoes, peppers, and squash in their place. We tried something new while transplanting the seedlings; we added about 2 tablespoons of the Dr. Earth organic veggie fertilizer to the hole right before we put each plant in. We were told this non burning "starter fertilizer" would help the plants grow fast and strong.

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of burnet

lots of fennel

lots of thyme

lots of dill

11 strawberries

1/2 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

2/5 lb snap peas

8.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

34.25 lb assorted lettuce

2 2/3 lb spinach

1.5 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)